Flynn’s dark warnings about Islam have not extended to the Islamist-leaning authoritarian Turkish government headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In an op-ed for the Washington newspaper The Hill just before the election, Flynn wrote that “our ally Turkey” needs support and echoed Erdogan’s warnings that a “shady” Turkish leader now exiled in Pennsylvania should not be given safe harbor in the U.S. Erdogan has called for the extradition of the exile, Fethullah Gullen, but the Obama administration has made no move to comply.

I have long speculated that Obama would capitulate to Erdogan’s request for Gulen over the failed ‘coup’ attempt and send him back to Turkey. But so far that hasn’t happened because Erdogan hasn’t been able to prove his case that Gulen was actually behind it. And there is much speculation in Turkey and abroad that the coup attempt was something that Erdogan knew about and allowed in order to seize more control over Turkey. Just look at this authoritarian response where he not only arrested those involved in the ‘coup’ attempt, but fired everyone from teachers to sports referees over having so-called ties to Gulen – thousands upon thousands of people. He’s using the ‘coup’ as an excuse to purge all of his enemies out of every nook and crannie in Turkey.

Yet Flynn thinks we should just send Gulen back to Turkey on a silver platter because Erdogan said so? C’mon.

But Flynn was compensated by the Flynn Intel Group, where he serves as a principal and which has registered as a lobbying firm for a Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman with close ties to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The relationship is more than professional, apparently. Flynn has called for the extradition to Turkey of the cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom he called a “shady Islamic mullah” who lives in exile in the Poconos and on whom Erdogan has blamed a failed July coup attempt (among a host of other sins).

Look, I’m not sure how much this matters, especially considering that this position doesn’t need the approval of the Senate. But it’s something you should know about.

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